Self-check for personal protective equipment

ABSTRACT

In some examples, a system includes a plurality of articles of personal protected equipment (PPE) that are each assigned to a particular worker. The system may also include a data hub that detects an input that initiates a broadcast of diagnostic self-check messages; identifies, in response to the input, each article of PPE of the plurality of articles of PPE; broadcasts, based on identifying each article of PPE, the diagnostic self-check messages to the respective articles of PPE, wherein each article of PPE receives its respective self-check message at its communication component; in response to receiving a set of diagnostic acknowledgement messages from one or more of the plurality of articles of PPE that have performed a diagnostic self-check, determines whether the set of diagnostic acknowledge messages satisfy one or more self-check criteria; and performs one or more operations based on whether the self-check criteria are satisfied.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/946,692, filed Jul. 1, 2020, now allowed, which is a continuation ofU.S. application Ser. No. 16/714,870, filed Dec. 16, 2019, issued asU.S. patent Ser. No. 10/741,052, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 16/340,714, filed Apr. 10, 2019, issued as U.S.patent Ser. No. 10/515,532, which is a national stage filing under 35U.S.C. 371 of PCT/US2017/056184, filed Oct. 11, 2017, which claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/408,353, filed Oct. 14,2016, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its/theirentirety herein the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference intheir entirety herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to safety equipment and, in particular, usingsafety equipment in a work environments.

BACKGROUND

Maintaining the safety and health of workers is a major concern acrossmany industries. Various rules and regulations have been developed toaid in addressing this concern. Such rules provide sets of requirementsto ensure proper administration of personnel health and safetyprocedures. To help in maintaining worker safety and health, someindividuals may be required to don, wear, carry, or otherwise use apersonal protective equipment (PPE) article, if the individuals enter orremain in work environments that have hazardous or potentially hazardousconditions.

Known types of PPE articles include, without limitation, respiratoryprotection equipment (RPE), e.g., for normal condition use or emergencyresponse; protective eyewear, such as visors, goggles, filters orshields; protective headwear, such as hard hats, hoods or helmets;hearing protection devices; protective shoes; protective gloves; otherprotective clothing, such as coveralls and aprons; protective articles,such as sensors, safety tools, detectors, global positioning devices,mining cap lamps and any other suitable gear. In some instances, aworker may operate in a work environment with multiple differentarticles of personal protective equipment.

SUMMARY

In general, this disclosure describes techniques and components forperforming a diagnostic self-check of PPE worn by or assigned to aworker. For instance, a worker may be equipped with multiple differentarticles of PPE, each of which includes a communication component andhardware that generates operating condition states for one for one ormore operating conditions. In some examples, the worker may be equippedwith a data hub that is communicatively coupled to the multipledifferent articles of PPE assigned to the worker. In response toreceiving an input, the data hub may initiate a self-check procedure inwhich self-check messages are broadcasted to each article of PPE that iscommunicatively coupled to the data hub. Each article of PPE may updateand/or select its operating condition states and send a diagnosticacknowledgement message to the data hub that indicates the operatingcondition states and/or whether a self-check performed at the article ofPPE indicates that the article of PPE is operating correctly. The datahub may receive the diagnostic acknowledgement messages and perform oneor more operations based on whether each article of PPE is operatingcorrectly. In this way, techniques and components of this disclosure mayenable a worker to determine if the set of PPE is operating correctlywithout further technical dissection or evaluation of the PPE, which maynot be possible in some environments. Furthermore, whether each articleof PPE is operating correctly may be further processed by a remotecomputing device, such as a PPE management system to provide for alertsand analytics analysis of the PPE.

In some examples, a system includes: a plurality of articles of personalprotected equipment (PPE) that are each assigned to a particular worker,wherein each article of PPE of the plurality of articles of PPE includesa respective communication component; a data hub assigned to theparticular worker comprising one or more computer processors, and amemory comprising instructions that when executed by the one or morecomputer processors cause the one or more computer processors to: detectan input that initiates a broadcast of diagnostic self-check messages;identify, in response to the input, each article of PPE of the pluralityof articles of PPE; broadcast, based on identifying each article of PPE,the diagnostic self-check messages to the respective articles of PPE,wherein each article of PPE receives its respective self-check messageat its communication component; in response to receiving a set ofdiagnostic acknowledgement messages from one or more of the plurality ofarticles of PPE that have performed a diagnostic self-check, determinewhether the set of diagnostic acknowledge messages satisfy one or moreself-check criteria; and perform one or more operations based at leastin part on whether the one or more self-check criteria are satisfied.

In some examples, a computing device includes: one or more computerprocessors; and a memory comprising instructions that when executed bythe one or more computer processors cause the one or more computerprocessors to: detect an input that initiates a broadcast of diagnosticself-check messages; identify, in response to the input, each article ofPPE of a plurality of articles of PPE that are communicatively coupledto the computing device; broadcast, based on identifying each article ofPPE, the diagnostic self-check messages to the respective articles ofPPE, wherein each article of PPE receives its respective self-checkmessage at its communication component; in response to receiving a setof diagnostic acknowledgement messages from one or more of the pluralityof articles of PPE that have performed a diagnostic self-check,determine whether the set of diagnostic acknowledge messages satisfy oneor more self-check criteria; and perform one or more operations based atleast in part on whether the one or more self-check criteria aresatisfied.

In some examples, a method includes: detecting, by a computing device,an input that initiates a broadcast of diagnostic self-check messages;identifying in response to the input, each article of PPE of a pluralityof articles of PPE that are communicatively coupled to the computingdevice; broadcasting, based on identifying each article of PPE, thediagnostic self-check messages to the respective articles of PPE,wherein each article of PPE receives its respective self-check messageat its communication component; in response to receiving a set ofdiagnostic acknowledgement messages from one or more of the plurality ofarticles of PPE that have performed a diagnostic self-check, determiningwhether the set of diagnostic acknowledge messages satisfy one or moreself-check criteria; and performing one or more operations based atleast in part on whether the one or more self-check criteria aresatisfied.

The details of one or more examples are set forth in the accompanyingdrawings and the description below. Other features, objects, andadvantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the description anddrawings, and from the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a data hub configurable to perform aPPE self-check procedure in accordance with one or more techniques ofthis disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a data hub configurable to perform aself-check procedure for one or more articles of PPE, in accordance withone or more techniques of this disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing system 2that includes a personal protection equipment management system (PPEMS)6 for managing personal protection equipment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram providing an operating perspective of PPEMS 6,in accordance with one or more techniques of this disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations to perform aPPE self-check procedure, in accordance with techniques of thisdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a data hub configurable to perform aPPE self-check procedure in accordance with one or more techniques ofthis disclosure. As shown in FIG. 1 , a worker is wearing supplied airrespirator system 100. System 100 includes head top 110, clean airsupply source 120, and data hub 130. Head top 110 is connected to cleanair supply source 120 by hose 119. Clean air supply source 120 can beany type of air supply source, such as a blower assembly for a poweredair purifying respirator (PAPR), an air tank for a self-containedbreathing apparatus (SCBA) or any other device that provides air to headtop 110. In FIG. 1 , clean air supply source 120 is a blower assemblyfor a PAPR. A PAPR is commonly used by individuals working in areaswhere there is known to be, or there is a potential of there beingdusts, fumes or gases that are potentially harmful or hazardous tohealth. A PAPR typically includes blower assembly, including a fandriven by an electric motor for delivering a forced flow of air to therespirator user. The air is passed from the PAPR blower assembly throughhose 119 to the interior of head top 110.

Head top 110 includes a visor 112 that is sized to fit over at least auser's nose and mouth. Visor 112 includes lens 116 which is secured tohelmet 118 by the frame assembly 114. Head top also includes a positionsensor 111 that senses the position of visor 112 relative to helmet 118to determine if the visor is in an open position or in a closedposition. In some instances, position sensor 111 may detect whethervisor 112 is partially open, and if so, what measure (e.g., percent ordegree) it is open. As an example, the position sensor 110 may be agyroscope that computes angular yaw, pitch, and/or roll (in degrees orradians) of the visor 112 relative to the helmet 118. In anotherexample, the position sensor 110 may be a magnet. A percent may beestimated respecting how open a visor 112 is in relation to the helmet118 by determining the magnetic field strength or flux perceived by theposition sensor 110. “Partially open” visor information can be used todenote that the user may be receiving eye and face protection forhazards while still receiving a reasonable amount of respiratoryprotection. This “partially open” visor state, if kept to shortdurations, can assist the user in face to face communications with otherworkers. Position sensor 111 can be a variety of types of sensors, forexample, an accelerometer, gyro, magnet, switch, potentiometer, digitalpositioning sensor or air pressure sensor. Position sensor 111 can alsobe a combination of any of the sensors listed above, or any other typesof sensors that can be used to detected the position of the visor 112relative to the helmet 118.

Head top 110 may include other types of sensors. For example, head top110 may include temperature sensor 113 that detects the ambienttemperature in the interior of head top 110. Head top 110 may includeother sensors such as an infrared head detection sensor positioned nearthe suspension of head top 110 to detect the presence of a head in headtop 110, or in other words, to detect whether head top 110 is being wornat any given point in time. Head top 110 may also include otherelectronic components, such as a communication module, a power source,such as a battery, and a processing component. A communication modulemay include a variety of communication capabilities, such as radiofrequency identification (RFID), Bluetooth, including any generations ofBluetooth, such as Bluetooth low energy (BLE), any type of wirelesscommunication, such as WiFi, Zigbee, radio frequency or other types ofcommunication methods as will be apparent to one of skill in the art upone reading the present disclosure.

Communication module in head top 110 can electronically interface withsensors, such as position sensor 111 or temperature sensor 113, suchthat it can transmit information from position sensor 111 or temperaturesensor 113 to other electronic devices, including data hub 130.

Data hub 130 may be portable such that it can be carried or worn by auser. Data hub 130 can also be personal, such that it is used by anindividual and communicates with personal protective equipment (PPE)assigned to that individual. In FIG. 1 , data hub 130 is secured to auser using a strap 134. However, data hub may be carried by a user orsecured to a user in other ways, such as being secured to PPE being wornby the user, to other garments being worn to a user, being attached to abelt, band, buckle, clip or other attachment mechanism as will beapparent to one of skill in the art upon reading the present disclosure.

Environmental beacon 140 includes at least environmental sensor 142which detects the presence of a hazard and communication module 144.Environmental sensor 142 may detect a variety of types of informationabout the area surrounding environmental beacon 140. For example,environmental sensor 142 may be a thermometer detecting temperature, abarometer detecting pressure, an accelerometer detecting movement orchange in position, an air contaminant sensor for detecting potentialharmful gases like carbon monoxide, or for detecting air-borncontaminants or particulates such as smoke, soot, dust, mold,pesticides, solvents (e.g., isocyanates, ammonia, bleach, etc.), andvolatile organic compounds (e.g., acetone, glycol ethers, benzene,methylene chloride, etc.). Environmental sensor 142 may detect, forexample any common gasses detected by a four gas sensor, including: CO,02, HS and Low Exposure Limit. In some instances, environmental sensor142 may determine the presence of a hazard when a contaminant levelexceeds a designated hazard threshold. In some instances, the designatedhazard threshold is configurable by the user or operator of the system.In some instances, the designated hazard threshold is stored on at leastone of the environmental sensor and the personal data hub. In someinstances, the designated hazard threshold is stored at personalprotective equipment management system (PPEMS) 6 (further described inFIGS. 3-4 ) and can be sent to data hub 130 or environmental beacon 140and stored locally on data hub 130 or environmental beacon 140.

Environmental beacon 140 and communication module 144 are electronicallyconnected to environmental sensor 142 to receive information fromenvironmental sensor 142. Communication module 144 may include a varietyof communication capabilities, such as: RFID, Bluetooth, including anygenerations of Bluetooth technology, and WiFi communicationcapabilities. Data hub 130 can also include any type of wirelesscommunication capabilities, such as radio frequency or Zigbeecommunication.

In some instances, environmental beacon 140 may store hazard informationbased on the location of environmental beacon 140. For example, ifenvironmental beacon 140 is in an environment known to have physicalhazards, such as the potential of flying objects, environmental beacon140 may store such information and communicate the presence of a hazardbased on the location of environmental beacon 140. In other instances,the signal indicating the presence of a hazard may be generated byenvironmental beacon 140 based on detection of a hazard by environmentalsensor 142.

The system may also have an exposure threshold. An exposure thresholdcan be stored on any combination of PPEMS 6, data hub 130, environmentalbeacon 140, and head top 110. A designated exposure threshold is thetime threshold during which a visor 112 can be in the open positionbefore an alert is generated. In other words, if the visor is in theopen position for a period of time exceeding a designated exposurethreshold, an alert may be generated. The designated exposure thresholdmay be configurable by a user or operator of the system. The designatedexposure threshold may depend on personal factors related to theindividual's health, age, or other demographic information, on the typeof environment the user is in, and on the danger of the exposure to thehazard.

An alert can be generated in a variety of scenarios and in a variety ofways. For example, the alert may be generated by the data hub 130 basedon information received from head top 110 and environmental sensor 140.An alert may be in the form of an electronic signal transmitted to PPEMS6 or to any other component of system 100. An alert may comprise one ormore of the following types of signals: tactile, vibration, audible,visual, heads-up display or radio frequency signal.

In some instances, a worker may be equipped with multiple differentarticles of PPE. For instance, a worker may be wearing a PAPR (andheadtop) as well as ear-muff style hearing protectors. The ear muffstyle hearing protectors may include a combination of software andelectronics to communicate with other hearing protection orcommunication devices. The PAPR may also include a combination ofhardware and software that provide functionality to operate the PAPRsuch as modifying blower rate speed, monitoring particulates in the air,or performing any other suitable functions.

In various instances, the worker may wish to determine that PPE worn bythe worker is operating correctly (e.g., satisfy one or more self-checkcriteria). In some examples, self-check criteria may be dynamicallybased on context data, such as location, environmental characteristics,time, fit with respect to the worker wearing the PPE, or any other typeof context data. An article of PPE may include a combination ofelectronics and software that operates, monitors, and otherwise controlsthe functionality and operation of the article of PPE. This combinationof electronics and software may store data that indicate one or moreoperating conditions. An operating condition may be assigned one or morestates such as OK, warning, failure, and the like. As an example anoperating condition for a PAPR may indicate whether the blower isoperating according to its designed specification. If the blower isoperating when activated by the worker according to its designedspecification, the corresponding operating condition may be OK. If theblower is operating when activated by the worker, but outside of itsdesign specification, the corresponding condition may be a warning. Ifthe blower is not operating at all (e.g., blower fan is not rotating)when activated by the worker, the corresponding operating condition maybe error. Any number of error states may be possible and any number ofoperating conditions may be defined for an article of PPE.

Techniques and components of this disclosure provide a self-checkprocedure that determines whether each article of PPE in a set of PPE(e.g., a set assigned to a worker) are operating correctly. Forinstance, a data hub worn by a worker may implement a self-checkprocedure to communicate with one or more other articles of PPE that arecommunicatively coupled to the data hub and which are assigned to theworker wearing the data hub. The worker may provide a user input at thedata hub which initiates the self-check procedure to each other articleof PPE. By checking the operating conditions of each article of PPE, thedata hub may determine whether a particular article of PPE is or is notoperating correctly. In this way, a worker may efficiently andaccurately determine if the set of PPE is operating correctly withoutfurther technical dissection or evaluation of the PPE, which may not bepossible in some environments. Techniques and components are furtherdescribed with respect to FIG. 1 .

Initially, as shown in FIG. 1 , a worker may be equipped with clean airsupply source 120 and data hub 130. Clean air supply source 120 andheadtop 110 may each be communicatively coupled by wirelesscommunication to data hub 130 via communication components respectivelyincluded in clean air supply source 120 and headtop 110. As such, datahub 130 may store data that uniquely identifies clean air supply source120 and headtop 110. Data hub 130 may include a self-check component andself-check data, as further described in FIG. 2 . The self-check datamay define one or more self-check criteria, which if satisfied or notsatisfied, indicate that the articles of PPE are operating correctly.The self-check component may execute a self-check procedure defined bythe self-check data to determine the operating conditions of differentarticles of PPE. For instance, clean air supply source 120 may include acombination of electronics and/or software that indicates an operatingcondition for the blower as described above, the states being OK,warning, or error. Headtop 110 may also include a sensor that indicatean operating condition for whether the visor is open (e.g., up), closed(e.g., down), or partially opened/closed.

To initiate the self-check, data hub 130 may include a button or otherinput device 131 through which the user may provide user input toinitiate the self-check procedure. Upon detecting the user input at theinput device 131, data hub 130 may initiate a broadcast of diagnosticself-check messages to one or more articles of PPE that arecommunicatively coupled to data hub 130. In some examples, data hub 130may store a set, list or other structured set of identifiers of articlesof PPE that are communicatively coupled to data hub 130. In someexamples, data hub 130 mays store data in association with eachidentifier that indicates whether it may respond to diagnosticself-check messages. Data hub 13 may generate a self-check message foreach article of PPE that may respond to self-check messages. In someexamples, the message include an identifier of the data hub, anindicator to perform a self-check (or particular type of self-check), atime stamp, or any other information usable to perform the self-check.In some examples, each self-check message contents may be differentbased on the type of PPE to which the self-check message is destined.

Data hub 130 may upon detecting the user input and identifying eacharticle of PPE, broadest each corresponding message to its correspondingarticle of PPE. For instance, data hub 130 may send the messages to eachcommunication component of each article of PPE. In some examples, thesame self-check message may be sent to each article of PPE. In any case,each article of PPE receives a self-check message at its communicationcomponent. In the example of FIG. 1 , headtop 110 and clean air supplysource 120 may each receive self-check messages. Based on a self-checkmessage, clean air supply source 120 may update and/or select itsoperating condition states for sending back to data hub 130. Forinstance, clean air supply 120 may periodically, continuously, orasynchronously (e.g., in response to a self-check message) update itsoperation condition states.

Clean air supply source 120 may generate a diagnostic acknowledgementmessage. The diagnostic acknowledgement message may indicate whether thearticle of PPE is operating correctly. In another example, a diagnosticacknowledgement message may include operating condition states for eachoperating condition. In some examples, the diagnostic acknowledgementmessage may include the types or names of the operation conditions. Insome examples, the diagnostic acknowledgement message may include atimestamp, identifier of the article of PPE, descriptive data thatcorresponds to an operating condition, or any other any otherinformation that is associated with the self-check. In the example ofFIG. 1 , clean air supply source 120 may have a warning state for theblower operating condition described above. As such, clean air supplysource 120 may send a diagnostic acknowledgement message that thatindicates the warning state for the blower operating condition. Headtop110 may send a diagnostic acknowledgment message that indicates thevisor is down.

Data hub 130 may receive a set of diagnostic acknowledgement messagesfrom headtop 110 and clean air supply source 120 respectively. Inresponse to receiving the diagnostic acknowledgement message, data hub130 may determine whether these messages satisfy one or more self-checkcriteria. In some examples, a self-check criterion may correspond to anoperating condition. That is, the self-check criterion may determinewhether an operating condition state is or is not satisfied. Forinstance, the self-check criterion may specify a Boolean condition,comparative condition (e.g., greater than, less than, or equal to), orany other type of condition. Data hub 130 may determine whether data inthe diagnostic acknowledgement message satisfy one or more self-checkcriteria. In some instances, a self-check criterion may be comprised ofmultiple self-check criteria (e.g., each operating condition state in aset of diagnostic acknowledgement messages is OK). In the example ofFIG. 1 , data hub 130 may include a first self-check criteria forheadtop 110 that the visor is down (e.g., not open or partiallyup/down). Data hub 130 may include a second self-check criteria forclean air supply source 120 that the operating condition state is OK.Data hub 130 may determine, based on the diagnostic acknowledgementmessages, that the first self-check criteria is satisfied (e.g., thevisor is down), but the second self-check criteria is not satisfied(e.g., the blower operating condition state is warning, i.e., not OK).

Data hub 130 may perform one or more operations based at least in parton whether the one or more self-check criteria are satisfied. Forinstance, data hub 130 may generate one or more alerts at data hub 130.Alerts may be visual, haptic, audible, or any other mode of output. Insome examples, the type or severity (e.g., duration, intensity, etc.)may be based on a type or severity of a self-check criterion beingsatisfied or not satisfied. In some examples, data hub 130 may send oneor more messages to PPEMS 6. The one or more messages may indicate thatone or more self-check criteria are not satisfied. In examples, the oneor more messages may indicate a worker identifier or othercharacteristics of a worker, PPE identifier or other characteristics ofPPE, work environment identifier or other characteristics of the workenvironment, timestamp, any information included in the diagnosticacknowledge message or other information received from PPE, workerlocation, self-check criteria identifier or data about the criteria, orany other data relating to whether the one or more self-check criteriaare satisfied. As further described in his disclosure, PPEMS 6 may sendalerts to other computing devices, perform analytics based on whetherthe self-check criteria are satisfied, log self-check information, toname only a few examples.

Although FIG. 1 , described the self-check procedure as being performedby data hub 130, such techniques may be performed directly by an articleof PPE. For instance, in an alternative example to FIG. 1 , the workermay not have a data hub and the self-check procedure may be initiated byclean air supply source 120 which includes the functionality previouslydescribed as being included in data hub 130. In this alternativeexample, clean air supply source 120 may include a combination ofelectronics and software to perform the self-check procedure includingcommunicatively coupling to other articles of PPE on which theself-check procedure is performed.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a data hub configurable to perform aself-check procedure for one or more articles of PPE, in accordance withone or more techniques of this disclosure. FIG. 2 illustrates componentsof data hub 130 including processor 400, communication unit 402, storagedevice 404, self-check component 406, user-interface device 408,self-check data 410, and PPE data 411. FIG. 2 illustrates only oneparticular example of data hub 130. Many other examples of data hub 130may be used in other instances and may include a subset of thecomponents included in example data hub 130 or may include additionalcomponents not shown example data hub 130 in FIG. 2 . In some examples,data hub 130 may be an intrinsically safe computing device, smartphone,wrist- or head-worn computing device, or any other computing device thatmay include a set, subset, or superset of functionality or components asshown in data hub 130. Communication channels may interconnect each ofthe components in data hub 130 for inter-component communications(physically, communicatively, and/or operatively). In some examples,communication channels may include a hardware bus, a network connection,one or more inter-process communication data structures, or any othercomponents for communicating data between hardware and/or software.

One or more processors 400 may implement functionality and/or executeinstructions within data hub 130. For example, processor 400 may receiveand execute instructions stored by storage devices 404. Theseinstructions executed by processor 400 may cause data hub 130 to storeand/or modify information, within storage devices 404 during programexecution. Processors 400 may execute instructions of components, suchas self-check component 406 to perform one or more operations inaccordance with techniques of this disclosure. That is, self-checkcomponent 406 may be operable by processor 400 to perform variousfunctions described herein.

Data hub 130 may include one or more user-interface devices 408 toreceive user input and/or output information to a user. One or moreinput components of user-interface devices 408 may receive input.Examples of input are tactile, audio, kinetic, and optical input, toname only a few examples. User-interface devices 408 of data hub 130, inone example, include a mouse, keyboard, voice responsive system, videocamera, buttons, control pad, microphone or any other type of device fordetecting input from a human or machine. In some examples, UI device 408may be a presence-sensitive input component, which may include apresence-sensitive screen, touch-sensitive screen, etc.

One or more output components of user-interface devices 408 may generateoutput. Examples of output are tactile, audio, and video output. Outputcomponents of user-interface devices 408, in some examples, include apresence-sensitive screen, sound card, video graphics adapter card,speaker, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor, liquid crystal display (LCD),or any other type of device for generating output to a human or machine.Output components may include display components such as cathode raytube (CRT) monitor, liquid crystal display (LCD), Light-Emitting Diode(LED) or any other type of device for generating tactile, audio, and/orvisual output. Output components may be integrated with data hub 130 insome examples.

UI device 408 may include a display, lights, buttons, keys (such asarrow or other indicator keys), and may be able to provide alerts to theuser in a variety of ways, such as by sounding an alarm or vibrating.The user interface can be used for a variety of functions. For example,a user may be able to acknowledge or snooze an alert through the userinterface. The user interface may also be used to control settings forthe head top and/or turbo peripherals that are not immediately withinthe reach of the user. For example, the turbo may be worn on the lowerback where the wearer cannot access the controls without significantdifficulty.

One or more communication units 402 of data hub 130 may communicate withexternal devices by transmitting and/or receiving data. For example,data hub 130 may use communication units 402 to transmit and/or receiveradio signals on a radio network such as a cellular radio network. Insome examples, communication units 402 may transmit and/or receivesatellite signals on a satellite network such as a Global PositioningSystem (GPS) network. Examples of communication units 402 include anetwork interface card (e.g. such as an Ethernet card), an opticaltransceiver, a radio frequency transceiver, a GPS receiver, or any othertype of device that can send and/or receive information. Other examplesof communication units 402 may include Bluetooth®, GPS, 3G, 4G, andWi-Fi® radios found in mobile devices as well as Universal Serial Bus(USB) controllers and the like.

One or more storage devices 404 within data hub 130 may storeinformation for processing during operation of data hub 130. In someexamples, storage device 404 is a temporary memory, meaning that aprimary purpose of storage device 404 is not long-term storage. Storagedevice 404 may configured for short-term storage of information asvolatile memory and therefore not retain stored contents if deactivated.Examples of volatile memories include random access memories (RAM),dynamic random access memories (DRAM), static random access memories(SRAM), and other forms of volatile memories known in the art.

Storage device 404, in some examples, also include one or morecomputer-readable storage media. Storage device 404 may be configured tostore larger amounts of information than volatile memory. Storage device404 may further be configured for long-term storage of information asnon-volatile memory space and retain information after activate/offcycles. Examples of non-volatile memories include magnetic hard discs,optical discs, floppy discs, flash memories, or forms of electricallyprogrammable memories (EPROM) or electrically erasable and programmable(EEPROM) memories. Storage device 404 may store program instructionsand/or data associated with components such as self-check component 406.

Data hub 130 may also include a power source, such as a battery, toprovide power to components shown in data hub 130. A rechargeablebattery, such as a Lithium Ion battery, can provide a compact andlong-life source of power. Data hub 130 may be adapted to haveelectrical contacts exposed or accessible from the exterior of the hubto allow recharging the data hub 130.

FIG. 2 illustrates self-check data 410 included in data hub 130 and PPEdata 411 included in data hub 130. PPE data 411 may include a list, set,or other structure data identifying each article of PPE that iscommunicatively coupled to data hub 130. In some examples, PPE data maybe unique device identifiers for each of PPE data 411. Data hub 130 mayalso include self-check data 410. Self-check data 410 may include a setof self-check criteria. In some examples, the self-check criteria mayinclude conditions as described in FIG. 1 that may be tested byself-check component 406. In some examples, self-check data 410 mayinclude a mapping between a self-check criterion and a type of PPE. Forinstance, a particular self-check criterion that tests for the operatingcondition of a blower in a clean air supply source may be associatedwith or mapped to a type indicator for a clean air supply source. Inthis way, self-check component 406 may apply the correspondingself-check criterion to the corresponding operation condition states ordata included in diagnostic acknowledgement messages. In some examples,self-check data 410 may received via communication unit 402 from acomputing device, such as PPEMS 6. For instance, PPEMS 6 may receiveand/or select information that indicates the set of articles of PPE wornby the worker. PPEMS 6 may send, based on this information, theself-check data to data hub 130 for the worker. As an example, PPEMS 6,may determine that the worker in FIG. 2 includes clean air supply source120 and headtop 110. Accordingly, PPEMS 6 may select self-check criteriathat correspond to the respective types of PPE (e.g., clean air supplysource and headtop).

In FIG. 2 , data hub 130 may detect a user input UI device 408.Self-check component may, in response to the user input, initiate abroadcast of diagnostic self-check messages to headtop 110 and clean airsupply source 120. Self-check component 406 may determine or identifyeach of headtop 110 and clean air supply source 120 that are identifiedin PPE data 411 as being communicatively coupled to data hub 130.Self-check component 406 may generate a self-check message for eacharticle of PPE that may respond to self-check messages.

Self-check component 406 may, upon detecting the user input andidentifying each article of PPE, cause communication unit 402 tobroadcast each corresponding message headtop 110 and clean air supplysource 120. For instance, data hub 130 may send the messages to eachcommunication component of headtop 110 and clean air supply source 120.Headtop 110 and clean air supply source 120 may each receive self-checkmessages. Based on a self-check message, clean air supply source 120 andheadtop 110 may update and/or select its operating condition states forsending back to data hub 130.

In FIG. 2 , clean air supply source 120 may have a warning state for theblower operating condition described above. As such, clean air supplysource 120 may send a diagnostic acknowledgement message that thatindicates the warning state for the blower operating condition. Headtop110 may send a diagnostic acknowledgment message that indicates thevisor is down.

Communication unit 402 may receive a set of diagnostic acknowledgementmessages from headtop 110 and clean air supply source 120 respectively.In response to receiving the diagnostic acknowledgement message,self-check component 406 may determine whether these messages satisfyone or more self-check criteria included in self-check data 410. In FIG.2 , self-check data 410 may include a first self-check criteria forheadtop 110 that the visor is down (e.g., not open or partiallyup/down). Self-check data 410 may include a second self-check criteriafor clean air supply source 120 that the operating condition state isOK. Self-check component 406 may determine, based on the diagnosticacknowledgement messages, that the first self-check criteria issatisfied (e.g., the visor is down), but the second self-check criteriais not satisfied (e.g., the blower operating condition state is warning,i.e., not OK).

Self-check component 406 may perform one or more operations based atleast in part on whether the one or more self-check criteria aresatisfied. For instance, self-check component 406 may generate one ormore alerts using one or more UI devices 408. Self-check component 406may cause communication unit 402 to send one or more messages to PPEMS6. The one or more messages may indicate that one or more self-checkcriteria are not satisfied. In some examples, self-check component 406may log whether one or more self-check criteria are satisfied in PPEdata 411.

In some examples, the input that initiates the self-check at data hub130 may be an event generated by the data hub in response to at leastone of a fall of the particular worker detected by the data hub, aphysiological or biometric condition of the particular worker, acharacteristic of the work environment, a time, or a location. Forinstance, if data hub 130 determines that a worker has experienced afall (e.g., using an accelerometer, model, or any other suitablehardware and/or technique), data hub 130 may initiate a self-checkprocedure as described in this disclosure to determine the PPE isoperating correctly. In another example, if a physiological or biometriccondition, such as body temperature, blood pressure, lactic acid, or anyother physiological or biometric condition of the user, satisfies athreshold (e.g., greater than, less than, or equal to), then data hub130 may initiate self-check procedure as described in this disclosure.In some examples, the input that initiates a broadcast of diagnosticself-check messages is received from a remote computing device, such asfrom PPEMS 6 or a computing device of a user other than the worker(e.g., a safety manager for the worker).

In some examples, data hub 130 and/or PPEMS 6 may determine acorrelation between one or more of the set of diagnostic acknowledgemessages and one or more other diagnostic acknowledge messages from oneor more workers other than the particular worker. In response todetermining a correlation, data hub 130 and/or PPEMS 6 may perform oneor more operations, such as sending an alert, logging the event, orchanging the operation of PPE. As an example, if a worker has manuallyinitiated the self-check procedure repeatedly, such that the number ofself-checks exceeds a threshold, data hub 130 and/or PPEMS 6 may performone or more operations, such as sending an alert, logging the event, orchanging the operation of PPE. In some examples, if a worker hasmanually initiated the self-check procedure repeatedly, such that thenumber of self-checks corresponds to a number of self-checks of anotherworker in proximity to the worker (or within a threshold number ofself-checks between the two numbers of self-checks by the respectiveworkers), then data hub 130 and/or PPEMS 6 may perform one or moreoperations, such as sending an alert, logging the event, or changing theoperation of PPE.

In some examples, an input at data hub 130 may cause a diagnostic checkof at least one of physiological/biometric conditions of the workerand/or of characteristics of the work environment. That is, data hub 130may perform a self-check of physiological/biometric conditions of theworker for such data that is received or generated by data hub 130 basedon physiological/biometric sensors in data hub 130 and/or sensors in PPEcommunicatively coupled to data hub 130. Data hub 130 may perform aself-check of characteristics of a work environment for such data thatis received or generated by data hub 130 based on sensors in data hub130, sensors in PPE communicatively coupled to data hub 130, and/orsensors in environmental monitoring devices in the work environment. Ineither case of diagnostic checks for the worker and/or work environment,data hub 130 may, as described in this disclosure with respect to PPE,determine whether one or more self-check criteria for the worker and/orworker environment are satisfied and perform one or more operationsbased on whether the self-check criteria are satisfied.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing system 2that includes a personal protection equipment management system (PPEMS)6 for managing personal protection equipment. As described herein, PPEMSallows authorized users to perform preventive occupational health andsafety actions and manage inspections and maintenance of safetyprotective equipment. By interacting with PPEMS 6, safety professionalscan, for example, manage area inspections, worker inspections, workerhealth and safety compliance training.

In general, PPEMS 6 provides data acquisition, monitoring, activitylogging, reporting, predictive analytics, PPE control, and alertgeneration to name only a few examples. For example, PPEMS 6 includes anunderlying analytics and safety event prediction engine and alertingsystem in accordance with various examples described herein. As furtherdescribed below, PPEMS 6 provides an integrated suite of personal safetyprotection equipment management tools and implements various techniquesof this disclosure. That is, PPEMS 6 provides an integrated, end-to-endsystem for managing personal protection equipment, e.g., safetyequipment, used by workers 10 within one or more physical environments8, which may be construction sites, mining or manufacturing sites or anyphysical environment. The techniques of this disclosure may be realizedwithin various parts of computing environment 2.

As shown in the example of FIG. 3 , system 2 represents a computingenvironment in which a computing device within of a plurality ofphysical environments 8A, 8B (collectively, environments 8)electronically communicate with PPEMS 6 via one or more computernetworks 4. Each of physical environment 8 represents a physicalenvironment, such as a work environment, in which one or moreindividuals, such as workers 10, utilize personal protection equipmentwhile engaging in tasks or activities within the respective environment.

In this example, environment 8A is shown as generally as having workers10, while environment 8B is shown in expanded form to provide a moredetailed example. In the example of FIG. 1 , a plurality of workers10A-10N may be wearing a variety of different PPE, such as ear muffhearing protectors and a powered-air purifying respirator (PAPR)(further illustrated in FIGS. 1-2 ).

As further described herein, each of article of PPE may include one ormore of embedded sensors, communication components, monitoring devicesand processing electronics configured to capture PPE data thatcorresponds to the PPE in real-time as a user (e.g., worker) engages inactivities while wearing the PPE. For example, as described in greaterdetail with respect to the examples shown in FIGS. 1-2 , a PAPR mayinclude a variety of electronic sensors for measuring operations of thePAPR, such as but not limited to: filter type, filter life, air flowrate, and the like. In addition, each article of PPE may include one ormore output devices for outputting data that is indicative of operationof the PPE and/or generating and outputting communications to therespective worker 10. For example, articles PPE 11 may include one ormore devices to generate audible feedback (e.g., one or more speakers),visual feedback (e.g., one or more displays, light emitting diodes(LEDs) or the like), or tactile feedback (e.g., a device that vibratesor provides other haptic feedback).

In some examples, each of environments 8 include computing facilities(e.g., a local area network) by which articles of PPE assigned toworkers 10 are able to communicate with PPEMS 6. For examples,environments 8 may be configured with wireless technology, such as802.11 wireless networks, 802.15 ZigBee networks, and the like. In theexample of FIG. 3 , environment 8B includes a local network 7 thatprovides a packet-based transport medium for communicating with PPEMS 6via network 4. In addition, environment 8B includes a plurality ofwireless access points 19A, 19B that may be geographically distributedthroughout the environment to provide support for wirelesscommunications throughout the work environment.

One or more articles of PPE may be configured to communicate data, suchas sensed motions, events and conditions, via wireless communications,such as via 802.11 WiFi protocols, Bluetooth protocol or the like. Thearticles of PPE may, for example, communicate directly with a wirelessaccess point 19. As another example, one or more of workers 10 may beequipped with a respective one of wearable data hubs 14A-14M that enableand facilitate communication between articles of PPE and PPEMS 6. Forexamples, articles of PPE for a respective worker may communicate with arespective data hub 14 via Bluetooth or other short range protocol, andthe data hubs may communicate with PPEMs 6 via wireless communicationsprocessed by wireless access points 19. Although shown as wearabledevices, hubs 14 may be implemented as stand-alone devices deployedwithin environment 8B.

In general, each of hubs 14 operates as a wireless device for articlesof PPE relaying communications to and from the PPE, and may be capableof buffering usage data in case communication is lost with PPEMS 6.Moreover, each of hubs 14 is programmable via PPEMS 6 so that localalert rules may be installed and executed without requiring a connectionto the cloud. As such, each of hubs 14 provides a relay of streams ofusage data from articles of PPE within the respective environment, andprovides a local computing environment for localized alerting based onstreams of events in the event communication with PPEMS 6 is lost.

As shown in the example of FIG. 3 , an environment, such as environment8B, may also include one or more wireless-enabled beacons, such asbeacons 17A-17C, that provide accurate location information within thework environment. For example, beacons 17A-17C may be GPS-enabled suchthat a controller within the respective beacon may be able to preciselydetermine the position of the respective beacon. Alternatively, beacons17A-17C may include a pre-programmed identifier that is associated inPPEMS 6 with a particular location. Based on wireless communicationswith one or more of beacons 17, a given SLR 11 or data hub 14 worn by aworker 10 is configured to determine the location of the worker withinwork environment 8B. In this way, event data reported to PPEMS 6 may bestamped with positional information to aid analysis, reporting andanalytics performed by the PPEMS.

In addition, an environment, such as environment 8B, may also one ormore wireless-enabled sensing stations, such as sensing stations 21A,21B. Each sensing station 21 includes one or more sensors and acontroller configured to output data indicative of sensed environmentalconditions. Moreover, sensing stations 21 may be positioned withinrespective geographic regions of environment 8B or otherwise interactwith beacons 17 to determine respective positions and include suchpositional information when reporting environmental data to PPEMS 6. Assuch, PPEMS 6 may configured to correlate the senses environmentalconditions with the particular regions and, therefore, may utilize thecaptured environmental data when processing event data received fromarticles of PPE. For example, PPEMS 6 may utilize the environmental datato aid generating alerts or other instructions for articles of PPE andfor performing predictive analytics, such as determining anycorrelations between certain environmental conditions (e.g., heat,humidity, visibility) with abnormal worker behavior or increased safetyevents. As such, PPEMS 6 may utilize current environmental conditions toaid prediction and avoidance of imminent safety events. Exampleenvironmental conditions that may be sensed by sensing devices 21include but are not limited to temperature, humidity, presence of gas,pressure, visibility, wind and the like.

In example implementations, an environment, such as environment 8B, mayalso include one or more safety stations 15 distributed throughout theenvironment to provide viewing stations for accessing PPEMs 6. Safetystations 15 may allow one of workers 10 to check out articles of PPEand/or other safety equipment, verify that safety equipment isappropriate for a particular one of environments 8, and/or exchangedata. For example, safety stations 15 may transmit alert rules, softwareupdates, or firmware updates to articles of PPE or other equipment.Safety stations 15 may also receive data cached on articles of PPE, hubs14, and/or other safety equipment. That is, while articles of PPE(and/or data hubs 14) may typically transmit usage data from sensors ofarticles of PPE to network 4, in some instances, articles of PPE (and/ordata hubs 14) may not have connectivity to network 4. In such instances,articles of PPE (and/or data hubs 14) may store usage data locally andtransmit the usage data to safety stations 15 upon being in proximitywith safety stations 15. Safety stations 15 may then upload the datafrom articles of PPE and connect to network 4. In some examples,proximate and/or approaching may mean within a pre-defined distance, orwithin a range of wireless communication.

In addition, each of environments 8 include computing facilities thatprovide an operating environment for end-user computing devices 16 forinteracting with PPEMS 6 via network 4. For example, each ofenvironments 8 typically includes one or more safety managersresponsible for overseeing safety compliance within the environment. Ingeneral, each user 20 interacts with computing devices 16 to accessPPEMS 6. Each of environments 8 may include systems. Similarly, remoteusers may use computing devices 18 to interact with PPEMS via network 4.For purposes of example, the end-user computing devices 16 may belaptops, desktop computers, mobile devices such as tablets or so-calledsmart phones and the like.

Users 20, 24 interact with PPEMS 6 to control and actively manage manyaspects of safely equipment utilized by workers 10, such as accessingand viewing usage records, analytics and reporting. For example, users20, 24 may review usage information acquired and stored by PPEMS 6,where the usage information may include data specifying starting andending times over a time duration (e.g., a day, a week, or the like),data collected during particular events, such as detected falls, senseddata acquired from the user, environment data, and the like. Inaddition, users 20, 24 may interact with PPEMS 6 to perform assettracking and to schedule maintenance events for individual pieces ofsafety equipment, e.g., SRLs 11, to ensure compliance with anyprocedures or regulations. PPEMS 6 may allow users 20, 24 to create andcomplete digital checklists with respect to the maintenance proceduresand to synchronize any results of the procedures from computing devices16, 18 to PPEMS 6.

Further, as described herein, PPEMS 6 integrates an event processingplatform configured to process thousand or even millions of concurrentstreams of events from digitally enabled PPEs. An underlying analyticsengine of PPEMS 6 applies historical data and models to the inboundstreams to compute assertions, such as identified anomalies or predictedoccurrences of safety events based on conditions or behavior patterns ofworkers 10. Further, PPEMS 6 provides real-time alerting and reportingto notify workers 10 and/or users 20, 24 of any predicted events,anomalies, trends, and the like.

The analytics engine of PPEMS 6 may, in some examples, apply analyticsto identify relationships or correlations between sensed worker data,environmental conditions, geographic regions and other factors andanalyze the impact on safety events. PPEMS 6 may determine, based on thedata acquired across populations of workers 10, which particularactivities, possibly within certain geographic region, lead to, or arepredicted to lead to, unusually high occurrences of safety events.

In this way, PPEMS 6 tightly integrates comprehensive tools for managingpersonal protection equipment with an underlying analytics engine andcommunication system to provide data acquisition, monitoring, activitylogging, reporting, behavior analytics and alert generation. Moreover,PPEMS 6 provides a communication system for operation and utilization byand between the various elements of system 2. Users 20, 24 may accessPPEMS to view results on any analytics performed by PPEMS 6 on dataacquired from workers 10. In some examples, PPEMS 6 may present aweb-based interface via a web server (e.g., an HTTP server) orclient-side applications may be deployed for devices of computingdevices 16, 18 used by users 20, 24, such as desktop computers, laptopcomputers, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, or the like.

In some examples, PPEMS 6 may provide a database query engine fordirectly querying PPEMS 6 to view acquired safety information,compliance information and any results of the analytic engine, e.g., bythe way of dashboards, alert notifications, reports and the like. Thatis, users 24, 26, or software executing on computing devices 16, 18, maysubmit queries to PPEMS 6 and receive data corresponding to the queriesfor presentation in the form of one or more reports or dashboards. Suchdashboards may provide various insights regarding system 2, such asbaseline (“normal”) operation across worker populations, identificationsof any anomalous workers engaging in abnormal activities that maypotentially expose the worker to risks, identifications of anygeographic regions within environments 2 for which unusually anomalous(e.g., high) safety events have been or are predicted to occur,identifications of any of environments 2 exhibiting anomalousoccurrences of safety events relative to other environments, and thelike.

As illustrated in detail below, PPEMS 6 may simplify workflows forindividuals charged with monitoring and ensure safety compliance for anentity or environment. That is, the techniques of this disclosure mayenable active safety management and allow an organization to takepreventative or correction actions with respect to certain regionswithin environments 8, particular pieces of safety equipment 11 orindividual workers 10, define and may further allow the entity toimplement workflow procedures that are data-driven by an underlyinganalytical engine.

As one example, the underlying analytical engine of PPEMS 6 may beconfigured to compute and present customer-defined metrics for workerpopulations within a given environment 8 or across multiple environmentsfor an organization as a whole. For example, PPEMS 6 may be configuredto acquire data and provide aggregated performance metrics and predictedbehavior analytics across a worker population (e.g., across workers 10of either or both of environments 8A, 8B). Furthermore, users 20, 24 mayset benchmarks for occurrence of any safety incidences, and PPEMS 6 maytrack actual performance metrics relative to the benchmarks forindividuals or defined worker populations.

As another example, PPEMS 6 may further trigger an alert if certaincombinations of conditions are present, e.g., to accelerate examinationor service of a safety equipment. In this manner, PPEMS 6 may identifyindividual pieces of PPE or workers 10 for which the metrics do not meetthe benchmarks and prompt the users to intervene and/or performprocedures to improve the metrics relative to the benchmarks, therebyensuring compliance and actively managing safety for workers 10.

In the example of FIG. 3 , data hub 14A receives self-check data fromPPEMS 6 via network 4. For instance, PPEMS 6 may receive and/or selectinformation that indicates the set of articles of PPE worn by theworker. PPEMS 6 may send, based on this information, the self-check datato data hub 14A for worker 10A. In FIG. 3 , PPEMS 6 determines thatworker 10A is equipped with clean air supply source 120 and headtop 110.Accordingly, PPEMS 6 may select self-check criteria that correspond tothe respective types of PPE (e.g., clean air supply source and headtop).

Data hub 14A may detect a user input, such as a user pressing a buttonto initiate a self-check. Data hub 14A may, in response to the userinput, initiate a broadcast of diagnostic self-check messages to aheadtop and clean air supply source worn by user 10A. Data hub 14A maydetermine or identify each of the headtop and clean air supply sourcethat are identified in data hub 14A as being communicatively coupled todata hub 14A. Data hub 14A may generate a self-check message for eacharticle of PPE that may respond to self-check messages.

Data hub 14A may, upon detecting the user input and identifying eacharticle of PPE, broadcast each corresponding message to the headtop andclean air supply source. The headtop and clean air supply source mayeach receive self-check messages. Based on a self-check message, theclean air supply source and headtop may update and/or select itsoperating condition states for sending back to data hub 14A.

As described in FIGS. 1 and 2 , the clean air supply source may have awarning state for the blower operating condition. As such, the clean airsupply source may send a diagnostic acknowledgement message that thatindicates the warning state for the blower operating condition. Theheadtop may send a diagnostic acknowledgment message that indicates thevisor is down.

Data hub 14A may receive a set of diagnostic acknowledgement messagesfrom the headtop and clean air supply source respectively. In responseto receiving the diagnostic acknowledgement message, data hub 14A maydetermine whether these messages satisfy one or more self-checkcriteria. Data hub 14A may determine, based on the diagnosticacknowledgement messages, that a first self-check criteria is satisfied(e.g., the visor is down), but a second self-check criteria is notsatisfied (e.g., the blower operating condition state is warning, i.e.,not OK).

Data hub 14A may perform one or more operations based at least in parton whether the one or more self-check criteria are satisfied. Forinstance, data hub 14A may generate one or more alerts using at data hub14A. Data hub 14A may send one or more messages to PPEMS 6. The one ormore messages may indicate that one or more self-check criteria are notsatisfied. In some examples, data hub 14A may log whether one or moreself-check criteria are satisfied, and/or in some examples send suchlogged data to PPEMS 6 for logging for further processing.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram providing an operating perspective of PPEMS 6when hosted as cloud-based platform capable of supporting multiple,distinct work environments 8 having an overall population of workers 10having a variety of communication enabled personal protection equipment(PPES), such as safety release lines (SRLs) 11, respirators 13, safetyhelmets or other safety equipment. In the example of FIG. 4 , thecomponents of PPEMS 6 are arranged according to multiple logical layersthat implement the techniques of the disclosure. Each layer may beimplemented by a one or more modules comprised of hardware, software, ora combination of hardware and software.

In FIG. 4 , personal protection equipment (PPEs) 62, such as SRLs 11,respirators 13 and/or other equipment, either directly or by way of hubs14, as well as computing devices 60, operate as clients 63 thatcommunicate with PPEMS 6 via interface layer 64. Computing devices 60typically execute client software applications, such as desktopapplications, mobile application, and web applications. Computingdevices 60 may represent any of computing devices 16, 18 of FIG. 1 .Examples of computing devices 60 may include, but are not limited to: aportable or mobile computing device (e.g., smartphone, wearablecomputing device, tablet), laptop computers, desktop computers, smarttelevision platforms, and servers, to name only a few examples.

As further described in this disclosure, PPEs 62 communicate with PPEMS6 (directly or via hubs 14) to provide streams of data acquired fromembedded sensors and other monitoring circuitry and receive from PPEMS 6alerts, configuration and other communications. Client applicationsexecuting on computing devices 60 may communicate with PPEMS 6 to sendand receive information that is retrieved, stored, generated, and/orotherwise processed by services 68. For instance, the clientapplications may request and edit safety event information includinganalytical data stored at and/or managed by PPEMS 6. In some examples,client applications 61 may request and display aggregate safety eventinformation that summarizes or otherwise aggregates numerous individualinstances of safety events and corresponding data acquired from PEPs 62and or generated by PPEMS 6. The client applications may interact withPPEMS 6 to query for analytics information about past and predictedsafety events, behavior trends of workers 10, to name only a fewexamples. In some examples, the client applications may output fordisplay information received from PPEMS 6 to visualize such informationfor users of clients 63. As further illustrated and described in below,PPEMS 6 may provide information to the client applications, which theclient applications output for display in user interfaces.

Clients applications executing on computing devices 60 may beimplemented for different platforms but include similar or the samefunctionality. For instance, a client application may be a desktopapplication compiled to run on a desktop operating system, such asMicrosoft Windows, Apple OS X, or Linux, to name only a few examples. Asanother example, client application 61 may be a mobile applicationcompiled to run on a mobile operating system, such as Google Android,Apple iOS, Microsoft Windows Mobile, or BlackBerry OS to name only a fewexamples. As another example, a client applications may be a webapplication such as a web browser that displays web pages received fromPPEMS 6. In the example of a web application, PPEMS 6 may receiverequests from the web application (e.g., the web browser), process therequests, and send one or more responses back to the web application. Inthis way, the collection of web pages, the client-side processing webapplication, and the server-side processing performed by PPEMS 6collectively provides the functionality to perform techniques of thisdisclosure. In this way, client applications use various services ofPPEMS 6 in accordance with techniques of this disclosure, and theapplications may operate within various different computing environment(e.g., embedded circuitry or processor of a PPE, a desktop operatingsystem, mobile operating system, or web browser, to name only a fewexamples).

As shown in FIG. 4 , PPEMS 6 includes an interface layer 64 thatrepresents a set of application programming interfaces (API) or protocolinterface presented and supported by PPEMS 6. Interface layer 64initially receives messages from any of clients 63 for furtherprocessing at PPEMS 6. Interface layer 64 may therefore provide one ormore interfaces that are available to client applications executing onclients 63. In some examples, the interfaces may be applicationprogramming interfaces (APIs) that are accessible over a network.Interface layer 64 may be implemented with one or more web servers. Theone or more web servers may receive incoming requests, process and/orforward information from the requests to services 68, and provide one ormore responses, based on information received from services 68, to theclient application that initially sent the request. In some examples,the one or more web servers that implement interface layer 64 mayinclude a runtime environment to deploy program logic that provides theone or more interfaces. As further described below, each service mayprovide a group of one or more interfaces that are accessible viainterface layer 64.

In some examples, interface layer 64 may provide Representational StateTransfer (RESTful) interfaces that use HTTP methods to interact withservices and manipulate resources of PPEMS 6. In such examples, services68 may generate JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) messages thatinterface layer 64 sends back to the client application 61 thatsubmitted the initial request. In some examples, interface layer 64provides web services using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) toprocess requests from client applications 61. In still other examples,interface layer 64 may use Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) to processrequests from clients 63. Upon receiving a request from a clientapplication to use one or more services 68, interface layer 64 sends theinformation to application layer 66, which includes services 68.

As shown in FIG. 4 , PPEMS 6 also includes an application layer 66 thatrepresents a collection of services for implementing much of theunderlying operations of PPEMS 6. Application layer 66 receivesinformation included in requests received from client applications 61and further processes the information according to one or more ofservices 68 invoked by the requests. Application layer 66 may beimplemented as one or more discrete software services executing on oneor more application servers, e.g., physical or virtual machines. Thatis, the application servers provide runtime environments for executionof services 68. In some examples, the functionality interface layer 64as described above and the functionality of application layer 66 may beimplemented at the same server.

Application layer 66 may include one or more separate software services68, e.g., processes that communicate, e.g., via a logical service bus 70as one example. Service bus 70 generally represents a logicalinterconnections or set of interfaces that allows different services tosend messages to other services, such as by a publish/subscriptioncommunication model. For instance, each of services 68 may subscribe tospecific types of messages based on criteria set for the respectiveservice. When a service publishes a message of a particular type onservice bus 70, other services that subscribe to messages of that typewill receive the message. In this way, each of services 68 maycommunicate information to one another. As another example, services 68may communicate in point-to-point fashion using sockets or othercommunication mechanism. In still other examples, a pipeline systemarchitecture could be used to enforce a workflow and logical processingof data a messages as they are process by the software system services.Before describing the functionality of each of services 68, the layersis briefly described herein.

Data layer 72 of PPEMS 6 represents a data repository that providespersistence for information in PPEMS 6 using one or more datarepositories 74. A data repository, generally, may be any data structureor software that stores and/or manages data. Examples of datarepositories include but are not limited to relational databases,multi-dimensional databases, maps, and hash tables, to name only a fewexamples. Data layer 72 may be implemented using Relational DatabaseManagement System (RDBMS) software to manage information in datarepositories 74. The RDBMS software may manage one or more datarepositories 74, which may be accessed using Structured Query Language(SQL). Information in the one or more databases may be stored,retrieved, and modified using the RDBMS software. In some examples, datalayer 72 may be implemented using an Object Database Management System(ODBMS), Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) database or other suitabledata management system. Data repositories 74 are further describedherein.

As shown in FIG. 2 , each of services 68A-68H (“services 68”) areimplemented in a modular form within PPEMS 6. Although shown asseparately modules for each service, in some examples the functionalityof two or more services may be combined into a single module orcomponent. Each of services 68 may be implemented in software, hardware,or a combination of hardware and software. Moreover, services 68 may beimplemented as standalone devices, separate virtual machines orcontainers, processes, threads or software instructions generally forexecution on one or more physical processors.

In some examples, one or more of services 68 may each provide one ormore interfaces that are exposed through interface layer 64.Accordingly, client applications 61 may call one or more interfaces ofone or more of services 68 to perform techniques of this disclosure.

In accordance with techniques of the disclosure, services 68 may includean event processing platform including an event endpoint frontend 68A,event selector 68B, event processor 68C and high priority (HP) eventprocessor 68D. Event endpoint frontend 68A operates as a front endinterface for receiving and sending communications to PPEs 62 and hubs14. In other words, event endpoint frontend 68A may operate as a frontline interface to safety equipment deployed within environments 8 andutilized by workers 10. In some instances, event endpoint frontend 68Amay receive numerous event streams 69 of communications from the PPEs 62carrying data sensed and captured by the safety equipment. Each incomingcommunication may, for example, carry data recently capture representingsensed conditions, motions, temperatures, actions or other data,generally referred to as events. Communications exchanged between theevent endpoint frontend 68A and the PPEs may be real-time or pseudoreal-time depending on communication delays and continuity.

Event selector 68B operates on the stream of events 69 received fromPPEs 62 and/or hubs 14 via frontend 68A and determines, based on rulesor classifications, priorities associated with the incoming events.Based on the priorities, event selector 68B enqueues the events forsubsequent processing by event processor 68C or high priority (HP) eventprocessor 68D.

In general, event processor 68C or high priority (HP) event processor68D operate on the incoming streams of events to update event data 74Awithin data repositories 74. For instance, event processors 68C, 68D maycreate, read, update, and delete event information stored in event data74A. Event information for may be stored in a respective database recordas a structure that includes name/value pairs of information, such asdata tables specified in row/column format. For instance, a name (e.g.,column) may be “worker ID” and a value may be an employee identificationnumber. An event record may include information such as, but not limitedto: worker identification, PPE identification, acquisition timestamp(s)and data indicative of one or more sensed parameters.

In addition, event selector 68B directs the incoming stream of events tostream analytics service 68F, which is configured to process theincoming stream of events to perform real-time analytics. Streamanalytics service 68F may, for example, be configured to process andcompare multiple streams of event data with historical values and models74B in real-time as event data is received. In this way, stream analyticservice 68D may be configured to detect anomalies, transform incomingevent data values, trigger alerts upon detecting safety concerns basedon conditions or worker behaviors. Historical values and models 74B mayinclude, for example, specified safety rules, business rules and thelike. In addition, stream analytic service 68D may generate output forcommunicating to PPPEs 62 by notification service 68F or computingdevices 60 by way of record management and reporting service 68D.

Analytics service 68F processes inbound streams of events, potentiallyhundreds or thousands of streams of events, from enabled safety PEP 62utilized by workers 10 within environments 8 to apply historical dataand models 74B to compute assertions, such as identified anomalies orpredicted occurrences of imminent safety events based on conditions orbehavior patterns of the workers. Analytics service 68D may publish theassertions to notification service 68F and/or record management byservice bus 70 for output to any of clients 63. In this way, analyticsservice 68F may configured as an active safety management system thatpredicts imminent safety concerns and provides real-time alerting andreporting. In addition, analytics service 68F may be a decision supportsystem that provides techniques for processing inbound streams of eventdata to generate assertions in the form of statistics, conclusions,and/or recommendations on an aggregate or individualized worker and/orPPE basis for enterprises, safety officers and other remote users. Forinstance, analytics service 68F may apply historical data and models 74Bto determine for a particular work, the likelihood that a safety eventis imminent for the worker based on detected behavior or activitypatterns, environmental conditions and geographic locations. In someexamples, analytics service 68F may determine whether a worker iscurrently impaired, e.g., due to possible alcohol or drugs, and mayrequire intervention to prevent safety events. As yet another example,analytics service 68F may provide comparative ratings of workers or typeof safety equipment in a particular environment 8.

Analytics service 68F may maintain or otherwise use one or more modelsthat provide risk metrics to predict patient outcomes. Analytics service68F may also generate order sets, recommendations, and quality measures.In some examples, analytics service 68F may generate user interfacesbased on processing information stored by PPEMS 6 to provide actionableinformation to any of clients 63.

Although other technologies can be used, in one example implementation,analytics service 68F utilizes machine learning when operating onstreams of safety events so as to perform real-time analytics. That is,analytics service 68F includes executable code generated by applicationof machine learning to training data of event streams and known safetyevents to detect patterns. The executable code may take the form ofsoftware instructions or rule sets and is generally referred to as amodel that can subsequently be applied to event streams 69 for detectingsimilar patterns and predicting upcoming events. Alternatively, or inaddition, analytics may communicate all or portions of the generatedcode and/or the machine learning models to hubs 16 for execution thereonso as to provide local alerting in near-real time to PPEs. Examplemachine learning techniques that may be employed to generate models 74Bcan include various learning styles, such as supervised learning,unsupervised learning, and semi-supervised learning. Example types ofalgorithms include Bayesian algorithms, Clustering algorithms,decision-tree algorithms, regularization algorithms, regressionalgorithms, instance-based algorithms, artificial neural networkalgorithms, deep learning algorithms, dimensionality reductionalgorithms and the like. Various examples of specific algorithms includeBayesian Linear Regression, Boosted Decision Tree Regression, and NeuralNetwork Regression, Back Propagation Neural Networks, the Apriorialgorithm, K-Means Clustering, k-Nearest Neighbour (kNN), LearningVector Quantization (LUQ), Self-Organizing Map (SOM), Locally WeightedLearning (LWL), Ridge Regression, Least Absolute Shrinkage and SelectionOperator (LASSO), Elastic Net, and Least-Angle Regression (LARS),Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Principal Component Regression(PCR).

Record management and reporting service 68G processes and responds tomessages and queries received from computing devices 60 via interfacelayer 64. For example, record management and reporting service 68G mayreceive requests from client computing devices for event data related toindividual workers, populations or sample sets of workers, geographicregions of environments 8 or environments 8 as a whole, individual orgroups/types of PPEs 62. In response, record management and reportingservice 68G accesses event information based on the request. Uponretrieving the event data, record management and reporting service 68Gconstructs an output response to the client application that initiallyrequested the information. In some examples, the data may be included ina document, such as an HTML document, or the data may be encoded in aJSON format or presented by a dashboard application executing on therequesting client computing device. For instance, as further describedin this disclosure, example user interfaces that include the eventinformation are depicted in the figures.

As additional examples, record management and reporting service 68G mayreceive requests to find, analyze, and correlate PPE event information.For instance, record management and reporting service 68G may receive aquery request from a client application for event data 74A over ahistorical time frame, such as a user can view PPE event informationover a period of time and/or a computing device can analyze the patientinformation over the period of time.

In example implementations, services 68 may also include securityservice 68E that authenticate and authorize users and requests withPPEMS 6. Specifically, security service 68E may receive authenticationrequests from client applications and/or other services 68 to accessdata in data layer 72 and/or perform processing in application layer 66.An authentication request may include credentials, such as a usernameand password. Security service 68E may query security data 74A todetermine whether the username and password combination is valid.Configuration data 74D may include security data in the form ofauthorization credentials, policies, and any other information forcontrolling access to PPEMS 6. As described above, security data 74A mayinclude authorization credentials, such as combinations of validusernames and passwords for authorized users of PPEMS 6. Othercredentials may include device identifiers or device profiles that areallowed to access PPEMS 6.

Services 68 may also include an audit service 681 that provides auditand logging functionality for operations performed at PPEMS 6. Forinstance, audit services 681 may log operations performed by services 68and/or data accessed by services 68 in data layer 72. Audit services 681may store audit information such as logged operations, accessed data,and rule processing results in audit data 74C. In some examples, auditservice 681 may generate events in response to one or more rules beingsatisfied. Audit service 681 may store data indicating the events inaudit data 74C.

PPEMS 6 may include self-check component 681, self-check criteria 74Eand work relation data 74F. Self-check criteria 74E may include one ormore self-check criterion as described in this disclosure. Work relationdata 74F may include mappings between data that corresponds to PPE,workers, and work environments. Work relation data 74F may be anysuitable datastore for storing, retrieving, updating and deleting data.RMRS 69G may store a mapping between the unique identifier of worker 10Aand a unique device identifier of data hub 14A. Work relation data store74F may also map a worker to an environment. In the example of FIG. 4 ,self-check component 681 may receive or otherwise determine data fromwork relation data 74F for data hub 14A, worker 10A, and/or PPEassociated with or assigned to worker 10A. Based on this data,self-check component 681 may select one or more self-check criteria fromself-check criteria 74E. Self-check component 681 may send theself-check criteria to data hub 14A.

As described in FIGS. 1-2 , a data hub may send messages that indicatewhether one or more self-check criteria have been satisfied. Interfacelayer 64 may receive the messages and self-check component 681 may storedata from the messages in work relation data 74F. in some examples, ifself-check component 681 determines that the message satisfies and alertcriterion (e.g., which may be configured by any user of PPEMS 6),self-check 681 may cause notification service 68E to send a notificationto one or more recipient computing devices. For instance, if self-check681 receives a message that indicates a self-check criteria has failed,self-check component 681 may cause notification service 68E to send amessage to a safety manager for the worker for which the self-checkprocedure failed.

In some examples, stream analytics service 68F may process a messagethat indicates whether one or more self-check criteria have beensatisfied in a set of other past messages stored in historical datamodels 74B. In other examples, stream analytics service 68F may processa message that indicates whether one or more self-check criteria havebeen satisfied in a stream of similar message. In either case, streamanalytics service 68F may detect an anomaly and cause notificationservice 68E to send a notification to one or more computing devices(e.g., of a safety manager, worker, and/or other workers near the workerfor which the self-check failed).

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations to perform aPPE self-check procedure, in accordance with techniques of thisdisclosure. For purposes of illustration only, the example operationsare described below within the context of a computing device, such asdata hub 130, as described in this disclosure. The computing device maydetect an input that initiates a broadcast of diagnostic self-checkmessages (500). In response to input, the computing device may identifyeach article of PPE of a plurality of articles of PPE that arecommunicatively coupled to the computing device (502). The computingdevice may broadcast, based on identifying each article of PPE, thediagnostic self-check messages to the respective articles of PPE (504).Each article of PPE receives its respective self-check message at itscommunication component. The computing device may receive a set ofdiagnostic acknowledgement messages from one or more of the plurality ofarticles of PPE that have performed a diagnostic self-check (506). Thecomputing device may determine whether the set of diagnostic acknowledgemessages satisfy one or more self-check criteria (508). In the exampleof FIG. 5 , the computing device may perform one or more operationsbased at least in part on whether the one or more self-check criteriaare satisfied (510).

In one or more examples, the functions described may be implemented inhardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implementedin software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over, as oneor more instructions or code, a computer-readable medium and executed bya hardware-based processing unit. Computer-readable media may includecomputer-readable storage media, which corresponds to a tangible mediumsuch as data storage media, or communication media including any mediumthat facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place toanother, e.g., according to a communication protocol. In this manner,computer-readable media generally may correspond to (1) tangiblecomputer-readable storage media, which is non-transitory or (2) acommunication medium such as a signal or carrier wave. Data storagemedia may be any available media that can be accessed by one or morecomputers or one or more processors to retrieve instructions, codeand/or data structures for implementation of the techniques described inthis disclosure. A computer program product may include acomputer-readable medium.

By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable storagemedia can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical diskstorage, magnetic disk storage, or other magnetic storage devices, flashmemory, or any other medium that can be used to store desired programcode in the form of instructions or data structures and that can beaccessed by a computer. Also, any connection is properly termed acomputer-readable medium. For example, if instructions are transmittedfrom a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable,fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), orwireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then thecoaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wirelesstechnologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in thedefinition of medium. It should be understood, however, thatcomputer-readable storage media and data storage media do not includeconnections, carrier waves, signals, or other transient media, but areinstead directed to non-transient, tangible storage media. Disk anddisc, as used, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc,digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray disc, where disksusually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce dataoptically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be includedwithin the scope of computer-readable media.

Instructions may be executed by one or more processors, such as one ormore digital signal processors (DSPs), general purpose microprocessors,application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmablelogic arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logiccircuitry. Accordingly, the term “processor”, as used may refer to anyof the foregoing structure or any other structure suitable forimplementation of the techniques described. In addition, in someaspects, the functionality described may be provided within dedicatedhardware and/or software modules. Also, the techniques could be fullyimplemented in one or more circuits or logic elements.

The techniques of this disclosure may be implemented in a wide varietyof devices or apparatuses, including a wireless handset, an integratedcircuit (IC) or a set of ICs (e.g., a chip set). Various components,modules, or units are described in this disclosure to emphasizefunctional aspects of devices configured to perform the disclosedtechniques, but do not necessarily require realization by differenthardware units. Rather, as described above, various units may becombined in a hardware unit or provided by a collection ofinteroperative hardware units, including one or more processors asdescribed above, in conjunction with suitable software and/or firmware.

It is to be recognized that depending on the example, certain acts orevents of any of the methods described herein can be performed in adifferent sequence, may be added, merged, or left out all together(e.g., not all described acts or events are necessary for the practiceof the method). Moreover, in certain examples, acts or events may beperformed concurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing,interrupt processing, or multiple processors, rather than sequentially.

In some examples, a computer-readable storage medium includes anon-transitory medium. The term “non-transitory” indicates, in someexamples, that the storage medium is not embodied in a carrier wave or apropagated signal. In certain examples, a non-transitory storage mediumstores data that can, over time, change (e.g., in RAM or cache).

Various examples have been described. These and other examples arewithin the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: an article of personalprotective equipment (PPE) comprising a communication component; and adata hub comprising a communication unit, one or more computerprocessors, and a memory comprising instructions that when executed bythe one or more computer processors cause the one or more computerprocessors to: receive, via the communication unit, at least onediagnostic acknowledge message from the article of PPE that hasperformed a diagnostic self-check, wherein the diagnostic acknowledgmentmessage at least includes an identifier of the article of PPE and dataindicative of a respective state of the article of PPE; determinewhether the article of PPE acknowledge message satisfy one or moreself-check criteria corresponding to proper operation of the article ofPPE; and perform one or more operations based at least in part onwhether the one or more self-check criteria are satisfied.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein to perform the one or more operations based at leastin part on whether the one or more self-check criteria are satisfied,the memory of the data hub comprises the instructions that when executedby the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computerprocessors to generate an alert at the data hub, wherein the alert is atleast one of an audible, a haptic, or a visual alert.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein to perform the one or more operations based at least inpart on whether the one or more self-check criteria are satisfied, thememory of the data hub comprises the instructions that when executed bythe one or more computer processors cause the one or more computerprocessors to initiate, via the communication unit, sending of a messageto a remote computing device that indicates whether the set ofdiagnostic acknowledge messages satisfy the one or more self-checkcriteria.
 4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a remotecomputing device, wherein the remote computing device, in response toreceiving a message that indicates whether the diagnostic acknowledgemessage satisfies the one or more self-check criteria, sends anindication to a computing device of a safety manager of a particularworker that indicates whether the set of diagnostic acknowledge messagessatisfy one or more self-check criteria, the particular worker beingassociated with the at least one article of PPE.
 5. The system of claim1, further comprising a remote computing device, wherein the remotecomputing device determines an anomaly based at least in part a messagefrom the data hub and at least one previously received message thatindicates whether the diagnostic acknowledge messages satisfies the oneor more self-check criteria, and wherein the indication sent to acomputing device of a safety manager of a particular worker is sent inresponse to the determining of the anomaly, the particular worker beingassociated with the at least one article of PPE.
 6. The system of claim1, wherein the memory of the data hub comprises the instructions that,when executed by the one or more computer processors, cause the one ormore computer processors to determine a correlation between thediagnostic acknowledge message and one or more other diagnosticacknowledge messages associated with one or more workers other than aparticular worker associated with the at least one article of PPE. 7.The system of claim 1, further comprising a remote computing device,wherein the remote computing device, in response to receiving the set ofdiagnostic acknowledge messages, sends a message to the data hub thatcauses a change in an operation of the at least one article of PPE.
 8. Acomputing device comprising: a communication unit; one or more computerprocessors; and a memory comprising instructions that when executed bythe one or more computer processors cause the one or more computerprocessors to: receive, via the communication unit, at least onediagnostic acknowledge message from an article of personal protectiveequipment (PPE), that has performed a respective diagnostic self-check,wherein the diagnostic acknowledgement message at least includes anidentifier of the article of PPE and data indicative of a respectivestate of the article of PPE; determine whether the diagnosticacknowledge message satisfies one or more self-check criteria; andperform one or more operations based at least in part on whether the oneor more self-check criteria are satisfied.
 9. The computing device ofclaim 8, wherein to perform the one or more operations based at least inpart on whether the one or more self-check criteria are satisfied, thememory comprises the instructions that when executed by the one or morecomputer processors cause the one or more computer processors togenerate an alert at a data hub, wherein the alert is at least one of anaudible, a haptic, or a visual alert.
 10. The computing device claim 8,wherein to perform the one or more operations based at least in part onwhether the one or more self-check criteria are satisfied, the memorycomprises the instructions that when executed by the one or morecomputer processors cause the one or more computer processors toinitiate, via the communication unit, sending of a message to a remotecomputing device that indicates whether the set of diagnosticacknowledge messages satisfy the one or more self-check criteria. 11.The computing device of claim 8, wherein the memory comprises theinstructions that when executed by the one or more computer processorscause the one or more computer processors to, in response to receivingthe message that indicates whether the diagnostic acknowledge messagesatisfies the one or more self-check criteria, send an indication to acomputing device of a safety manager of a particular worker thatindicates whether the diagnostic acknowledge message satisfy one or moreself-check criteria, the particular worker being associated with the atleast one article of PPE.
 12. The computing device of claim 8, wherein aremote computing device determines an anomaly based at least in part themessage from the data hub and at least one previously received messagethat indicates whether the diagnostic acknowledge message satisfies theone or more self-check criteria, and wherein the indication sent to acomputing device of a safety manager of a particular worker is sent inresponse to the determining of the anomaly, the particular worker beingassociated with the at least one article of PPE.
 13. A methodcomprising: receiving, via a communication unit, at least one diagnosticacknowledge message from a set of personal protective equipment (PPE),that have each performed a respective diagnostic self-check, wherein thediagnostic acknowledgment message at least includes an identifier of thearticle of PPE and data indicative of a respective state of the articleof PPE; determining whether the diagnostic acknowledge messagessatisfies one or more self-check criteria; and performing one or moreoperations based at least in part on whether the one or more self-checkcriteria are satisfied.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:generating, based at least in part on determining whether the diagnosticacknowledge messages satisfies the one or more self-check criteria, analert at a computing device, wherein the alert is at least one of anaudible, a haptic, or a visual alert.
 15. The method of claim 13,further comprising: initiating, via the communication unit and based atleast in part on determining whether the diagnostic acknowledge messagesatisfies the one or more self-check criteria, sending of a message to aremote computing device that indicates whether the set of diagnosticacknowledge messages satisfy the one or more self-check criteria.